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History and Context

In: Qualified Intermediary

Author

Listed:
  • Ross K. McGill

    (TConsult Ltd)

  • Kirsty V. Pitkin

    (TConsult Ltd)

Abstract

Tax regulation was an invention of the British monarchy in 1799 with the establishment of the Board of Taxes, designed to raise money to help pay for the Napoleonic wars. The subject has been evolving continuously for several hundred years, and for every development in that time there have been those who seek to subvert the government’s choices, such as smugglers avoiding excise duty in Cornwall during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It has been an arms race in which the “criminals” (tax evaders) have generally always been one step ahead of the lawmakers. Even when they weren’t, the response from those being taxed, such as in the case of the window tax of England’s William III in 1696, was rarely benign, leading to unanticipated behaviour, such as bricking up your windows to avoid the tax—from which we get the term “daylight robbery”—and occasionally even innovation, such the development of lighter, fluted glass to avoid a tax on glass, which was sold and taxed by weight.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross K. McGill & Kirsty V. Pitkin, 2025. "History and Context," Springer Books, in: Qualified Intermediary, chapter 0, pages 9-18, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-81410-5_2
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-81410-5_2
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